                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2025 March 12
    A dark field is filled with stars and galaxies. A large spiral galaxy
    appears on the upper left. Toward the right, there is a smaller fuzzy
   patch that is a comet with a short tail. Please see the explanation for
                         more detailed information.

                       NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy
   Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-François Bax & Serge Brunier, OCA/C2PU;
                   Text: Ogetay Kayali (Michigan Tech U.)

   Explanation: Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable? The
   Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance
   from a gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical companion
   NGC 770, seen just below. Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78, the
   Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years, is a nearby 100 million
   light years beyond the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible
   toward the constellation of the Ram (Aries). But in the featured image,
   the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion -- one with a long and
   fuzzy tail: Comet 43P/Wolf-Harrington. Though the comet appears to be
   aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually much closer to us,
   residing only light minutes away -- well within our Solar System. The
   comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy, nor is it physically
   related to it. By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two
   cosmic wonders briefly share the same frame taken late last year from
   Calern, France.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

